1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of diving equipment and more specifically to diver's buoyancy compensators or floatation jackets and more particularly to an improved buoyancy compensator the construction of which allows increased flexibility for optimizing placement of buoyancy chambers for the comfort and stability of the diver.
2. Prior Art
The current practice in the buoyancy compensator art is to create an airtight bladder from two symmetrical pieces of fabric that are both coated on their inner air holding surfaces with a heat fusible material. The desired shapes of the material are cut out and the edges are heat fused by ultrasonic welding equipment to provide an airtight bladder for the buoyancy compensator. A variety of baffling methods and other attachments have been employed to conform the bladder to the desired shape. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,810,134 to Faulconer et al.
Unfortunately, the practice of using only two pieces of symmetrical fabric restricts the shape of the bladder and hence, the placement of buoyancy to roughly that which can be thought of as flat patterns or pillows that become enlarged when inflated. These patterns are few in configuration and common in the industry among various manufacturers. There is a division of general configuration however that is referred to as back mounted compensators that provide all of the floatation on the back of the diver and front mounted compensators that provide the majority of floatation in front of the diver over the shoulders or under the arms. These two configurations have both advantages and disadvantages, but neither is optimal for the diver. The back mounted devices, when inflated, have a tendency to push the diver's head and face under the water when he is swimming in a prone, face down position on the surface or if he is in an upright resting position. It is excellent however when swimming on the surface on the back in a reclining position. The front-mounted jacket has just the opposite affect. It does not provide enough back support in the reclining position for comfortable surface swimming. It is very stable in the upright floating position and does not push the face into the water during prone, face down surface swimming. These two configurations require considerably different placement of the buoyancy chambers and building a compensator that could make optimal use of the buoyancy placement used in both back and front mounted chambers cannot be currently achieved with conventional construction methods.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a buoyancy compensator having a construction which provides the advantages of both the aforementioned back mounted devices and front mounted devices in a unitary structure so that the swimmer has adequate support on both front and back, simultaneously.